Richard Hodgson

Robert Hodgson immigrated to Virginia in 1745 and settled in the north end of the Shenandoah Valley. Here at the base of Round Hill he and his wife Elizabeth built a house and established a home for themselves and their twelve children. The home passed to their son Abner and later to his son Samuel. Samuel Hodgson married Rebecca Bean, daughter of James Bean and Magdalene Seabert. Rebecca was a member of the Friends (Quaker) Church and as such could not marry one who was "outside the faith". So in 1834 when she married Samuel Hodgson who was not a Friend, they eloped on horseback, riding to Hagarstown, Maryland to be married. Her brother James (her father had died in 1828) pursued them on horseback, maybe only as a matter os show and with no intention of stopping them, but nevertheless, those of who he inquired along the way declared that he carried a gun.

Samuel and Rebecca Hodgson lived and raised their nine children in his home at Round Hill. Round Hill was 2000 feet high and was used as a signal station all through the Civil War by troops of both sides, as signals could be seen 25 to 30 miles north into Pennsylvania and Maryland.